PrePublish Comment Moderator checks every new comment on a WordPress site before it goes live, giving it a spam and toxicity score from 0 to 100 and then approving, holding, or marking it as spam according to thresholds set by the site owner.
It suits blogs and news sites with active comment sections that want to cut down on manual spam cleanup and stop toxic replies from appearing in public.
Scoring can run through a built-in Local Filter that works entirely on the server without any external account, or through a cloud AI provider chosen by the site owner: Groq, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Google’s Perspective API.
Using any of these cloud options requires an API key from that provider, which may bill for the requests it processes. Results appear directly in the WordPress comments screen, including an AI Score column and a button to retry a check that failed.
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Key Features of PrePublish Comment Moderator
Adjustable approval thresholds. Site owners set separate approve and hold thresholds, creating three zones so low-risk comments publish automatically, borderline ones wait for review, and high-risk ones are marked spam.
Free local filtering. The Local Filter runs on the server with no API key and no per-comment cost, using word lists tuned for Greek and English along with a custom blocked-words list that supports severity levels.
Choice of AI providers. Comments can instead be scored by Groq, OpenAI, Google Gemini, or Perspective API, letting site owners pick a provider that matches the accuracy and cost they want.
Greek and Greeklish support. Detection is tuned for Greek, English, and Greeklish text, with accent normalization and recognition of common leetspeak-style bypass attempts.
Fail-safe handling of errors. If a provider’s API times out or fails, the comment is held for manual review rather than published automatically, and the plugin retries the check in the background or on demand.
Comment schema markup. The plugin adds Comment structured data into the JSON-LD already produced by Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress, or Newsroom OS, without creating duplicate entries.
Admin moderation tools. The settings page includes setup guides for each provider, an AI Score column in the comments list, and a one-click Retry AI action for rechecking held comments.
Frontend display options. An optional Live Comments banner and an AI Verified badge can be shown on the site to reflect the moderation status of published comments.
How to Install PrePublish Comment Moderator
Step 1: Install the plugin. From the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for PrePublish Comment Moderator.
Step 2: Activate it. Click Install Now, then Activate to enable the plugin on your site.
Step 3: Open the settings page. Go to Settings > PrePublish Moderator to configure moderation.
Step 4: Choose a provider. Select Local Filter to start with no API key required, or pick Groq, OpenAI, Gemini, or Perspective API and paste in the API key following the on-screen setup guide for that service.
Step 5: Set your thresholds. Adjust the approve and hold thresholds to control how strict moderation is, then click Save Changes.
Step 6: Test it. Submit a test comment on a post with comments enabled to confirm scoring and moderation are working as expected.
Good to Know About PrePublish Comment Moderator
The plugin’s FAQ clarifies that the Local Filter is enabled by default and needs no API key, while Groq or OpenAI are offered for more nuanced detection of context and sarcasm. If a provider’s request fails, the comment is held rather than auto-approved, and the plugin retries it automatically a few times before it can also be rechecked manually.
Comment analysis only runs when a comment is submitted, not on every page view, so regular browsing is unaffected. Moderation applies to all frontend submissions, including those from logged-in users, though not to actions taken within wp-admin. API keys are encrypted with OpenSSL using WordPress authentication salts before being stored in the database.
Download PrePublish Comment Moderator on WordPress.org